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You’ve developed strong story ARCs. You’ve fleshed out and built strong character ARCs. You have determined point of view and which tense you’re going to use throughout the book. Your novel has a strong beginning and a strong ending.

Building a Scene

The basic building block of any story whether play or novel is the scene. Every scene is a step from the first scene to the last.

Look over the story ARCs that you’ve created and determine where each scene of the ARC will occur in the story. The first thing to do is to determine what the purpose or purposes each scene will have regarding moving the story forward.

Different types of scenes exist. These types fall under three broad categories. First is the action scene. The second is the introspection scene. Third is the transitional scene.

Determine what action needs to occur within this scene and what needs to be discussed by the characters during this scene. Work any good details from the first draft into this second draft and eliminate any empty dialogue and rambling internalization. Develop character voices and craft unique characters based on the information in your character bible.

The Anatomy of the Basic Scene

Just as the body is made up of cells, so the novel is made up of scenes. Each scene has a goal, something to be accomplished. Two, a set-up, three location, for characters at odds or in conflict (in the case of introspection, a character could be at odds with himself.) Action, emotion, and dialogue. Finally, each scene must have a conclusion either to jettison you into the next scene or toward the next conflict.

The most important aspect of the scene is the goal of what you want to accomplish with this scene. Scenes should never be part of a story just to fill space. The more you’ve defined the scene’s goal, the better it adds to the storyline.

The object of the setup is to get characters together or to get one character alone so that character can be involved in introspection.

Location involves knowing when and where the scene is occurring.

What conflict is at stake during this scene?

How is this conflict carried out in action, emotion and dialogue? What drama is involved?

What is the conclusion of this scene? How does it set up for the next scene?

The Main Scenes

A novel has ten main scenes with various other scenes between. The main plot will be the main event of each of these ten scenes. These scenes are:

#1 – First scenes Introduce protagonist in her world. Establish her core need. Set the stage, begin building the world, bring key characters on stage.

#2 – Turning Point #1 inciting incident.

#3 – Pinch Point #1 Give a glimpse of the opposition’s power, need, and goal as well as the stakes.

#4 – Twist #1: Something new happens: a new ally, a friend becomes a foe. New info reveals a serious complication to reaching the goal. Protagonist must adjust to change with this setback.

#5 – The midpoint No turning back. Important event that propels the story forward and solidifies the protagonist’s determination to reach her goal.

#6 – Pinch Point #2 The opposition comes full force. Time to buckle down and fight through it.

#7 – Twist 2: A surprise giving (false?) hope. The goal now looks within reach. A mentor gives encouragement, a secret weapon, an important clue.

#8 – Turning Point #4 Major setback. All is lost and hopeless. Time for final push.

#9 – Turning Point #5 The climax where the goal is either reached or not; the main questions are answered.

#10 – The Ending scene. the aftermath, the wrap-up and resolution. (more discussion about this in last week’s post).

Determine what occurs during these scenes and write the scenes according to the guidelines of a basic scene and you will have the main scenes of your main plot well established.

Get Your FREE Copy of The Comprehensive Novel Editing Checklist

This is the first post in a series of blog posts about how
to edit your novel. If you have a first draft that you would love to publish
this year, be sure to pick up a copy of my novel editing checklist and if you
haven’t already, sign up to make sure that you never miss a post of this
editing series.

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Writing great beginnings and endings is like finding bookends for your novel. Last week we discussed how to write a great beginning. This week we’ll go over great endings.

Five Ways to End Your Novel

1. The trusty plot twist: Plot twists are great alternatives to inserting last-minute characters who fix everything. A plot twist offers the unexpected, but the key difference is that it makes sense within the story’s world. A good twist feels surprising but somehow appropriate for the story and protagonist.

2. The “oh, no!” that leads to the “aha!”: Life is crashing down on your protagonist, the weight of the story’s conflict is becoming too much to handle, and he or she simply isn’t up to the task — everything is surely doomed. Congratulations! Your character is in the story’s darkest moment, where someone or something must serve as inspiration for rising against all odds and saving the day. In these desperate times your character searches within, has a eureka! Epiphany that ends your story with triumph and satisfied readers.

3. Going back to square one: This path takes your protagonist to the same dark moment already mentioned. But, when given a clear opportunity to turn his or her life around, the character… doesn’t. Instead, he or she returns to old ways, or the status quo. This type of ending works best if you are writing a character-driven novel.

4. Is this really the end?: Open-ended endings are tough to pull off and require quite a bit of character and plot understanding, but leaving your readers with thoughtful questions can get them talking and thinking about possible answers. This kind of ending is popular with many book series and draws the reader to read the next book.

5. Close the book: After the final climactic moment, don’t hang around explaining “this is what happens after.” Readers tend to lose interest once the story’s reached a satisfying conclusion.

Some writers like to experiment with different endings until they come to one that best suits their story. Don’t be afraid to write, rewrite, and rewrite again until your ending sounds natural, satisfactory, and complete!

If you want to become a better author, learning how to end a book well is crucial.

Tips to Write Better Story Endings

Build to an intriguing climax. A great ending is all in the build-up. A taut climax isn’t equally important for every genre. A novel that relies on twists, turns and tension (a murder mystery or thriller, for example) will require a stronger build-up.

Books benefit from a satisfying build-up. Placing complications in your story that get in the way a satisfying ending keeps readers interested in what will happen next.

How do you build to a climactic novel ending?

Vary pace – write shorter scenes and chapters to increase momentum.

Keep the largest confrontations between characters for your final chapters, but hint at their approach.

Make sure your ending is earned, not improbable.

A story with an improbable ending is frustrating because it rings untrue. Usually the ending that makes sense follows the simple logic of cause and effect.

This doesn’t mean that you cannot create an outlandish, fantastical, or unexpected ending. There are very few absolute rules when it comes to writing fiction. Yet laying groundwork for your ending and building the anticipation of a specific outcome (even if the outcome itself proves different to what you’ve led readers to expect) creates a sense of direction and objective.

An irritatingly unlikely ending may result if you get yourself into tricky tangle in your plot. Many fictional characters are a little too lucky and are saved by the bell. Be careful of letting a strong sense of cause and effect slip away in your closing chapters for the sake of convenient resolution.

Leave Room for the Imagination

An ending doesn’t have to be the end of your character.

Story endings that leave room for readers’ imaginations are enjoyable because readers get to picture what comes next, without being told. A little mystery, a little bit of incompletion remains.

This is especially important when you write series. Make sure that your final chapters convey a sense of something new developing or beginning, even as this narrative thread closes.

Review the best novel endings for insights into how to end a book

The best novel endings are masterclasses in how to end a book. When you write your ending, pick up a few of your favorite books. Read the final paragraphs.

• How the book’s ending connects to preceding chapters (does it repeat memorable imagery from earlier? What is ending-like about its language or ideas?)

• The tone of the ending – does it fit with everything that precedes it?

Bring home how your characters have changed

Probably the most important aspect of ending your story lies in change. Showing how your characters have changed at the end of your novel as they’ve reached their objectives creates a satisfying sense of development.

Use the ‘5 W’s’ to create the End

In addition to showing how characters have changed, use the ‘5 w’s’ – who, what, why, where and when – as a whole. Shifting to a climactic location for your closing chapters, for example, adds to the sense of an ultimate destination.

A change of place can help to establish a sense of climax and direction. Similarly, use shifts in setting along with character goals and motivations to show that your story is reaching its end.

How not to End a Novel

Last week, we discussed how not to begin a novel. Here are ways not to end one.

The reader expects a major event, only it doesn’t happen. A bad ending that fizzles out or miraculously rescues characters from a tricky situation can ruin a good book. Anti-climax, of course, is a valid literary device, but this path is a risky and some may see not delivering what you have foreshadowed as a cop-out.

If you’re not sure what type of ending to use, write multiple endings and let them sit a while. Read through your entire manuscript from the beginning and see which flows best and makes the most cohesive sense for your whole story.

Ending your novel is more important than beginning it, despite the reasoning that the opening entices the reader into the work. Both are skills to master. However, fixing a problematic opening in a revision is simple compared with fixing a befuddled ending. Traditionally, endings are viewed as “happy”, “sad”, “pensive”, “surprise”, “abrupt” and the rest of the gamut. However, it really doesn’t matter “how” your novel ends, it’s “where” your novel ends that is critical.

Anti-Climax endings are usually recognized by their failure to please, surprise, or even keep the reader’s attention. It is generally caused by having a more powerful scene a few chapters from the end, which “peaks” your novel too soon. It’s downhill from there. This is corrected by toning down the zenith chapter, although it might break your heart. Usually, the culprit scene and the final scene have similar settings, characters and tone. Change the earlier scene’s intensity, setting and character mesh. Intensify the last scene. The last scene must be the most important and memorable scene in the novel or why should the reader even bother to make the journey?

Runaway train endings are recognized when your pacing is too fast. Your ending comes up suddenly, catching the reader off-guard. You don’t want your reader asking “Is that it?” This usually stems from wanting to finish the book. Take the time to determine how your story will end. Put clues on the ending throughout the book. Think about when your “ending” begins. If it starts in the last two chapters, back up and rethink. The earlier your novel’s ending begins, the stronger and firmer paced the ending is. Most novel endings begin in the middle of the work and some in the first paragraph of Chapter One. You must be continually building toward the end.

Contrived endings are grafted onto the novel, and usually because the author is using a strict outline. The stronger the outline, the more constraint there is for character development. Characters are forced to say and do things that the author wants them to say or do. When the work concludes, the end is usually contrived.

Developmental endings are common. Authors do not always see that their style much change by the end of the novel. Expositional styles in the first third of the novel, work less and less as the work progresses. Developmental devices stop working by the last third. Too many times last scenes are a suite of settings, flashbacks, hula dances, complex actions requiring science degrees and the like. Endings can be action scenes, but simple ones, with intensely short sentences, without metaphors and similes. Extensive movement should be simplified and clear. Character activity and dialogue should be emphasized. Build, build, build to a climax, and never introduce a new character in the last twenty pages.

Dribble out endings are evident in works that do not have an ending. They have no impact. The reader is supposed to ponder the ending because the author forgot to write one.

Epilogues

Epilogues can be good, because readers what to know some of the details beyond the end of the story. The problem with epilogues is that they are sometimes incorporated into the last scene. Epilogues are “not” the ending. They just come “at the end.” An epilogue settles details in a satisfactory way, leaving something open for perhaps another “book” in a series, and makes the reader feel better for reading your work.

Be assured that when you revise your novel you “will” rewrite your ending. You should, just as you should craft a dozen openers revise your endings in the same way to see what provides the most satisfying ending.

Get Your FREE Copy of The Comprehensive Novel Editing Checklist

This is the first post in a series of blog posts about how
to edit your novel. If you have a first draft that you would love to publish
this year, be sure to pick up a copy of my novel editing checklist and if you
haven’t already, sign up to make sure that you never miss a post of this
editing series.

Like this:

Once I understand my story lines and have an intimate relationship with my characters, it’s time to figure out how to begin the story.

How does a novelist determine exactly where to begin the novel? Many new authors are apt to start a story too early rather than too late.

To determine where to start, determine when your first dramatic event or your first major plot point occurs. Thought your beginning doesn’t need to start with action, something important does need to be occurring as it relates to the story line. The beginning of your novel needs to begin by hooking your audience into the story through either action, character, or setting.

The First Line

The story begins with the first line. Perfect first lines can be vivid or establish a unique story voice. It may contain a surprise, something that makes the audience laugh, a statement of truth. The first line can also be very clear and contain the entirety of the novel. The perfect line takes many forms and only you can determine the perfect first line of your story.

Be patient as you look for it. You may have to take several tries before you find the right one that hooks the reader into your story.

Try starting with an interesting detail of character, setting or something symbolic of your story’s largest themes.

Your Novel’s First Paragraph

Your great first line must then be followed by a great opening paragraph.

A great opening line must be followed by a great opening paragraph. It’s hard to do either if you don’t have a central story idea that inspires you and suggests ideas, but if you have done the work of determining your story line (and subplots) and have developed an intimate relationship with your characters, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. Take some information about your protagonist and your setting and create a scene where your protagonist is just before the first plot point. This type of story opening can us a feeling of sweeping history, of epic time spanning generations. We get roped more into the character’s life as we start to see glimpses of his past and the environment and upbringing that shaped him.

In addition, you may want to add a bit of mystery to your story. For instance, your character may do something in the opening paragraph that makes the reader wonder what is going on and why that character might be doing what he is doing.

If the story opens with a narrator, how does the narrator’s voice itself capture our interest? with humor? or distinct personality?

Every novel opening contains at least one of the following elements of great opening hooks. Do you have unanswered questions? Intriguing actions or events? A troubling or unusual or suspenseful scenario?

TENSE AND POINT OF VIEW

With your first paragraph, determine how you will handle tense and point of view throughout the whole story. Most novels are written in the past tense. It is important to maintain that tense throughout the entire book. If you choose to try to use some other tense (as an experiment), be sure to use that throughout the novel.

Though traditionally, tense has been past tense, you have always had options when it comes to how traditional novels approach point of view.

You might choose first person. I ran after the dog.

You might choose third person Jan ran after the dog.

You might choose omniscient. Jan ran after the dog while the class watched and wondered. Would she catch him?

A more modern approach is to switch between viewpoints and even use present tense instead of past tense. Before deciding on viewpoint and tense consider this. Studies have shown that older readers prefer past tense while younger ones prefer present tense. If your audience is older, use past tense. If younger, consider using present tense.

hatever you decide, use the same method throughout the book either present or past tense. You want to avoid confusing your readers with too many tense or point of view changes.

Not sure which POV to write in? Write your first scene first in first person, then third person limited and then omniscient. Which one feels right?

Look for A Natural Starting Point

Does writing your own starting point make you realize your choices are limitless, and this paralyzes you? Yet your novel must flow from the first scene you select. Where should you start? Start wherever you think it should start. You can always change it later. Perhaps even several times until you have the perfect beginning.

You can also start with your character sketches. Ask yourself what this character is doing when you first meet him and write about it.

Read over how you started your first draft. Did you start at a good place or do you think you should have written it later? Did you start too far before the action? If so, look for a better place later in the book. The truth is, you can start your story any number of ways. Come back to this first line, first paragraph and first page several times throughout the writing process until you believe that it is as good as it gets.

Present Strong Characters Immediately

Remember the old adage: Show Don’t Tell. Be sure to bring your protagonist into the first chapter and show him doing something. Establish your characters’ situations. What do they know at the beginning?

Don’t Overdo the Setting

Don’t give the opening scene in too much depth. You’ve got it all pictured in your head: the colors, sounds, flavors and feelings. You want everybody to be in the same place with the story you are. Instead, easy them into the view. An introduction is enough, for now. You’ll fill in the details later. Just give them the basic feel of the setting of whether you’re on star ship or a street in a British colony. Instead of giving the history of the place and how long the character has lived there and the weather, consider showing the character in the setting with a few details that show the scene in that moment. Perhaps even indicate how the character feels about the scene.

Later you can add more details telling about the house, the street, the neighbors and the household pet.

Carefully Choose Details to Create Immediacy

In chapter one, you’ll need to keep your details economical, but avoid vagueness. You want to include details that are necessary to the story and move it along. If the detail serves the story, you can’t have too much.

Make Chapter One a Story in Itself

It’s no accident that many great novels have first chapters that were excerpted in magazines, where they essentially stood as short stories. I remember being knocked to the floor by the gorgeous completeness of Ian McEwan’s first chapter of On Chesil Beach when it was excerpted in The New Yorker.

Every chapter should have its own plot, especially chapter one.

Focus on action. Make trouble. Put your characters in jeopardy early. Make trouble early and make it big or make it ominous.

Don’t let your characters be wishy-washy. Make them decisive. A good way to do that is to make a character take decisive action. End chapter one with some closure, but make that closure false.

Put your Best In Chapter One

Set your tone and flaunt it. Have confidence to own your book. Show the reader that you have generated a terrific idea for action and emotion whenever you want. Pull your reader into your story from the first chapter, the first page, the first paragraph, and the first line. Hook your reader like a big game fisherman.

Don’t Make these Rooky Mistakes

Whether you’re thinking about self-publishing or going traditional, here are several ways that professional agents would not like if you use these following “techniques” when writing your first chapter.

False beginnings Make Readers Feel Cheated

1. Don’t kill off your main character at the end of Chapter One.

2. Don’t create opening scenes that you think are real, but then the protagonist wakes up.

Prologues

1. Readers prefer to find themselves in the midst of a moving plot from page one rather than being kept outside of it, or eased into it.

2. Make chapter one relevant and well-written

3. Prologues are a lazy way to bring back-story chunks to the reader. Backstorys can be handled better within the story. Forget Prologues.

Exposition and description

1. Don’t go beyond what is necessary to setting the scene. The reader wants to feel as though he or she is in the hands of a master storyteller. Long descriptions in chapter one can make the story seem amateurish and contrived.

2. However, equally as bad is the lack of any exposition where the reader becomes disoriented when they learn five pages in that the location is not what the reader thought. Better to have a balance between exposition and mystery.

3. Avoid too many adjectives and adverbs.

4. Avoid long laundry lists of character descriptions. Work character descriptions into the story.

Starting too slowly

1. Though you might want to start with “status quo” at the beginning, don’t have the characters moving around doing little things like housework and thinking.

2. Don’t start with “in the beginning” or “once upon a time” beginnings where nothing happens.

Voice

1. Show don’t tell. Fill your readers’ heads with curiosity about your characters and questions that must be answered. Do this rather than fill them in on exactly where when, who and how.

2. Avoid filling scenes with flowery prose.

3. Avoid starting with a cheesy hook.

4. Avoid starting with My name is. . .

5. Make your main characters more interesting than your secondary ones.

Characters and backstory

2. Have a great plot started before you express too much about the character’s backstory. Good writers focus on plot and cut out the back story. You’ll be amazed at how much the backstory is part of the character’s DNA.

3. Start with action rather than reflection.

4. Don’t drop too much information into the first few pages. Getting to know characters is like getting to know people in real life.

In crime fiction

Don’t start with the protagonist waking up with a hangover.

In fantasy

Don’t start with the opening scene set with a battle or with a pastoral scene where the protagonist is gathering herbs.

In Romance

No having a woman (or man) awakening to find herself with a strange man in her bedroom and automatically finding him attractive. If the average woman awoke to a strange man in her bedroom, she’d be reaching for a weapon, instead of lusting after him.

Get Your FREE Copy of The Comprehensive Novel Editing Checklist

If you have a first draft that you would love to publish this year, be sure to pick up a copy of my novel editing checklist and if you haven’t already, sign up to make sure that you never miss a post of this editing series.